Jordan Nickerson

The Wolfville Formation crops out along the shoreline of the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. Cambridge Cove contains an exceptionally well preserved outcrop which presents 2D and 3D exposures of the braided channel depositional environment of the Wolfville Formation. These outcrops demonstrate the stratigraphic complexities associated with the depositional environment.

This study aims to: 1) investigate the heterogeneity of a braided channel complex including interconnectivity between channel bodies, as well as baffles and barriers of fluid flow within stratigraphic packages, 2) determine the structural controls on reservoir compartmentalization, including sealing and transmissive faults, and 3) discern the potential of these outcrops as an analogue for other early Mesozoic syn-rift and post-rift reservoirs in the subsurface.

Data from measured sections of the outcrops, LIDAR, high resolution photogrammetry, scintillometer readings (gamma ray) and permeameter measurments have been compiled, analyzed; a depositional model of the study area has been constructed. The model demonstrates how the lateral continuity of the architectural elements preferentially allows fluid flow through the higher permeable lithologies and illustrates constraints on the effective drainage of fluids in this simulated subsurface reservoir.

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Pages: 73
Supervisor: Grant Wach